It is full summer here in California. It has been a hot summer and some of trees aren't fairing so well:

There is a plant that once established does a good job of coping with the summer conditions: Oleander. It isn't a California native and instead comes from North Africa and the Middle East. Sadly California is looking more like those regions with each passing year. Here is a photo of Oleanders that "escaped" and were growing wild on a property owned by our local water district:

That's about as pretty as things get in California in the summertime. Does anyone have a pretty summertime scene they would like to share?

Come August there is one final major display of flowering color: the blooming of the Naked Ladies or Amaryllis. These hardy plants are native to Western Cape region of South Africa. These plants grow in the wintertime and apparently die out by summer. Then late in the season they send out their stalks upon which these pink flowers appear. Here is a line of these flowers growing against the edge of a drainage gutter:

You can see the dead foliage at the base of the flower stalks.

The crape myrtle trees continue to bloom, but that's about the end of flowering plants here in California. Some plants, such as California Poppies, can make a second appearance in the autumn after the first rains. Other than that, Californians will have to wait until Spring for the next real display of blooming color.